Close, but no cigar yet

Chapter 27; 122K words and counting.

That means I've met my original total wordcount goal for Draft 1 (figuring lots will be cut during editing), without getting to the end of Draft 1 yet.

Closer, but lots still to do. Have run out of "pre-written" old Nano scenes to include, gotta make it all up from scratch from here on out. New scene bubbled up yesterday that I hadn't had planned, brings some useful clues to light. Not that my characters know what the significance is yet, but they will by the end. Somehow.

Have been writing at more-than-Nano pace the past few days, hands and brain and shoulders/neck are all tense and tired. Would love a day off from writing, but sisters are arriving a week from today.

Aaack!

Onward...

Getting my ducks in a row

Moving a pivotal scene closer to the end has solved a lot of problems.

Last night I was feeling anxious about the prospects of finishing a readable draft in next 10 days (i.e., before my sisters get here), but got some ducks in a row this morning. Time is still SHORT.

Business admin tasks must get some attention today (Q3 payroll filings are still on to-do list, want to get that crossed off). I'm not complaining. Beats the hell out of having a day job. Some essential errands must be done as well. Wednesday is farmer's market day in Hilo, and our fridge is as empty as it gets; the only fresh produce in the house is one brown banana and some wilted carrots. Time to go stock up on papayas and organic lettuce and whatever else looks good.

Then, gotta sit down and once more go over the 60-page section I've been working on the past few days. I've sliced and diced and shuffled so much to fix sequencing and timing problems, finally got to the point this morning that everything (chapters, scenes, paragraphs, notes to self) is (I hope) in the new correct order.

Now I need to go back and turn all those "notes to self" into the necessary new sentences, paragraphs, and segues that will hold the shuffled mess together into one string. And make sure I got the resequencing right.

I've got one more scene from last year's NaNo that is "pre-written" and will be tacked on after I add a few more scenes of new stuff.

Then, one big challenge to go: I still don't know how the villain finds out "they're on to me" and what actions he/she takes that will lead to the FINAL SHOWDOWN. I do have some good ideas for the confrontation, but they're all still in my head.

From there, it's all wrap-up.

Gee, put like that, it almost sounds like I'm near the end.

114K words and counting.

For the draft my sisters read I may add a page at the end of chapters (where necessary) with notes of info to be added: e.g., "Missing from this chapter, a short scene introducing the character of ALAN, and Granimi decides to shop for a condo."

Onward.

Plot Tangles

Crap. I've run into a problem.

I've been breezing along, cheerfully accumulating word count, inching closer to "the end" and, ouch. Just ran into a wall.

Or, more accurately, a plot tangle. I'm at the stage where my MC (and posse) are close to gathering together (more like stumbling over, most of the time) the various bits and pieces of clues that will point them to who done it. But I'm having a little trouble with the timing and sequence of information that leads to the aha moment and (simultaneously, if I manage to be clever enough to pull it off) reveals an interesting and significant subplot twist.

There's one tidbit that MC really should have on Sunday evening (in novel time), but as of now isn't going to have until next Tuesday. And then there's the info she uncovers on Sunday that would work better (in terms of other characters, scenes, etc) if it were delayed for a day or two.

You'd think I could just switch the two incidents, but no. It's not that easy.

So, I'm taking a day off (or several, hope it won't drag on too long) from word count accumulation for some plot detangling.

Best case scenario, I emerge from this with something resembling a scene outline for at least the next few days of novel time, which ought to (fingers crossed) speed up the race to "the end."

Wish me luck.

September Mission Accomplished

I’ve done it: I’ve met (and exceeded by a little) my goal of adding 1200 words a day to the draft-in-progress for the month of September.

As I keep chugging along I am trying to stay focused on slogging forward one scene at a time, being strict about writing chronologically from here to the end.

I'm closer. A lot closer. But not close enough yet.

If I stop to think that I have to get to "The End" before my sisters arrive to visit on 10/18, I'll panic. That’s two weeks plus a couple of days for frantic cleanup and a rough draft print-out.

I’m thinking of this draft as more "lacey and tangled" than “rough” (some parts of it are quite polished). There are lots of nice plot threads in there, but they meander around and get lost and then emerge elsewhere as a dangling thread, and there are loops of mystery stuff poking out here and there and everywhere, and threads that dive into the fun halfway through with no connection to what came before, and holes still. Too many holes. Most of them much smaller than previously, but they’re there.

Biggest hole remaining is that I have figured out how the good guys figure out "who done it," but not how the villain realizes “the jig's up.” Need something to happen to trigger the big showdown scene at the end. Have ideas for that one, but not how I'm gonna sew up the big gaping gap that comes before it on what passes for an outline around here.

Nice thing about working chronologically is I don't have to solve that plot problem today. "Buildup to the showdown" is still at least 3 or 4 days away in novel time. At the rate I’m going I won’t get to that scene before the beginning of next week at the earliest. Plenty of time for new ideas to pop up.

In the meantime, gonna go pre-wash latest fabric indulgence: didn’t buy much (had to reorder a trim fabric that I'd goofed and gotten the wrong color-way of). Have decided to consider all September fabric purchases a b'day gift to myself. Now majorly want to sew up at least one new thing to wear before my birthday, preferably two. Parcel of dress patterns arrived yesterday, must resist temptation for a few more hours.

Because these days noveling comes first. Today's goal: if I add 1600 more words I can do some sewing.

So Much For That Idea

Yikes, have two weeks really gone by since my last post? Uh oh. Have not made as much plotting progress as I'd hoped, although I've added some "fit this in somewhere" points to the "how the story works" list, have fleshed out the Ouija board scene to include essential plot points/info drops, and made other small progress.

But, having fallen into recreational reading the past few days, now must junk the "safe combo found in dropped/broken golf trophy" trick, which arose during '07 NaNoWriMo writing, and which I think was pretty neat. That's because early this morning, lounging on a deck chair with a mug of coffee, I finished reading Laura Lippman's Another Thing to Fall, and darn it, a key revelation comes to light when Lloyd drops the Emmy statuette and a hidden paper is revealed.

So, great minds think alike. Anyway, Laura got it into print first (no surprise there, question of if/when mine will ever see print still wide open) and recently, so I'll come up with something else. Since that's current in my mind today, maybe I'll focus on that rather than polishing the Ouija scene, which might benefit from a fresh look after some time away.

Another Deadline

So I went ahead and sent in to the Mystery Writers of America for an entry form for the next "Best First Mystery" competition. And yippee... I got assigned to (I hope) a "good" judge: a woman author whose style and wry humor is similar (I think) to mine. I'm not gonna post her name here yet, 'cause I don't wanna jinx anything.

This ought to light some kind of a fire under my butt: deadline for submissions is 12/31/08, and now that I've been assigned this judge I don't want to blow the opportunity by not getting a submittable, near-perfect draft done in time.

I'm happy to say that the first 4 chapters are now in excellent shape, and I'm plodding forward. Chapters 5-13 are shaping up well, but need some tweaking in the plot department. The storyline itself is evolving painfully slowly still (I can write at the speed of light, but I plot like a fossilized mastodon). I'm trying to keep the plot/mystery reasonably simple -- while still achieving "clever" -- and let the characters deliver most of the fun. With a little luck and some ruthless editing I ought to be able to bring in a complete story draft at somewhere under way too many pages.

Edit Mode

I've been in "edit mode" lately. Decided (after several changes of mind) to go ahead with Rose's prologue, and after several passes have cut the length almost in half, which it needed. So much easier to write long and cut.

Chapters 1-3 have also been under the knife, but less drastically so. Now I'm poised to cruise through Chapter 4 with one hand on the mouse and the other on the delete key. Plenty of good writing in there, but the wedding reception sequence is way too long and unfocused. Need to strip it down to its essence, while finding clever ways to feed in some more backstory details. There's a subplot supposedly lurking behind the scenes that I haven't managed to introduce yet. oops.

Once this is all done I'll have (I hope) a solid launch into the middle of the story. Whether or not I'll be able to squeeze discovery of the dead guy into the first 50 pages or not remains to be seen, but knocking off Rose in the prologue takes care of the "where's the corpse?" issue, right?

Next challenge is to get back into "write mode" in order to crank out more first/second draft and fill in all the plot holes throughout the middle.

Abby and I have agreed to do a novel exchange when she comes to visit in October (I'll read hers, she'll read mind). That gives me three months and three days to pull a complete, readable draft together. Eeep.